Concept of job analysis

Detailed knowledge of the nature and requirement of job to be filled is essential

for determining the kind or quality of personnel required. Such knowledge can be
obtained through the process of job analysis. Job analysis is the formal and detailed study
of the jobs. It refers to a scientific and systematic analysis of a job in order to obtain al
pertinent facts about the job. Job analysis can be defined as the process of determining
by observation and study the tasks, which comprises the job, the methods and
equipment used and skills and attitudes required for successful performance of the
job.
Job analysis therefore provides the following information about the job.
i. Identify the job in terms of its title and code number
ii. The operations and tasks involved in the job including their timing,
significance, complexity and sequence.
iii. Location , physical setting, hazard, and discomforts, supervision given and
received and other significant characteristics of
the job.
iv. Duties involved in the job along with the frequency of occurrence of each duty.
v. Materials, methods and equipments used in performing the job.
vi. Relationship of the job with other jobs in the organisation.
vii. Personal attributes required for performing the job eg. Physical strength,
mental skill, attitudes, experience, training etc.

Process of job analysis

The main steps involved in job analysis are as follows.
1. Organisational Analysis: First of all an overall view of various jobs in the
organisation is obtained. This is required to judge the linkage between jobs and the
organisational goals, interrelationships among jobs, and the contribution of various jobs
to efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation. For this purpose background
information is collected in he form of organisational chart, class specification , and work
flow chart. Organisation charts shows the relation of the job with other job in the
organisation. Class specifications describe the general requirement of the job family.
Work flow charts indicates the flow of activities involved in the job.
2. Organising Job Analysis Programme: It is necessary to plan and organise
the programme of job analysis. The company must decide who will be incharge of the
programme and must assign responsibility. A budget and time schedule should be
developed.
3. Deciding the uses of Job Analysis Information: It has been stated above that
information generated by job analysis can be utilized for practically all functions of
human resource management. It is desirable to focus on new priority areas in which the

job analysis information is to be used. These areas can be decided on the basis of the
needs, priorities and constraints of the particular organisation.
4. Selecting Representative jobs for analysis: It would be highly time
consuming and costly to analyse all the jobs. It is therefore desirable to select a
representative sample of jobs for the purpose of detailed analysis. Priorities of various
jobs needing analysis can also be determined.
5. Collection of Data: In this step data on the characteristics of the job and
qualifications and behaviour required to do the job effectively is collected. Data may be
collected form the employees who actually perform the job, or from supervisors or from
outsiders called the trade job analysist appointed to watch employees performing the job.
Several techniques are available for job analysis. Care should be taken to use only those
techniques which are acceptable and reliable in the given situation.
6. Developing A Job Description: The information collected in the previous step
is used in preparing a job description. This is a written statement that describes in brief
the tasks, duties and responsibilities which need to be discharge for effective job
performance.
7. Preparing a job Specification: The last step in job analysis is to prepare a job
specification or employee specification. This is a written statement which specifies the
personal attributes in terms of education, training, experience and aptitude required to
perform the job.

Methods Of Data Collection

A Variety of sources and methods are used to collect data relating to a job. The
main methods are given below.
1. Job Performance: Under this method, the job analyst actually performs the job
under study to obtain a first hand experience of the actual tasks, physical and social
demand and the environment of the job. This method can be used only for jobs where
skill requirements are low and can, therefore be learnt quickly and easily. This is a time
consuming method and is therefore not appropriate for job requiring extensive training.
2. Personal Observation: Here the analyst directly observes the worker or group
engaged in doing the job. The tasks performed, the pace at which activities are carried
out, the working conditions, the hazard involved, etc are observed during a complete
work cycle. The information thus obtained is recorded in a standard format. This method
is appropriate for jobs which involve manual/physical, standarised and short job cycle
activities. Mechanic, weaver are example of such jobs. There are however many aspects
of a job involving mental process and unforeseen circumstances which cant be directly
observed. Observation method can be effective only when the job analyst is skilled
enough to know what to observe and how to analysis what is observed.
3. Interview: The analyst personally interviews the employee, his supervisor and
other concerned person and records answer to relevant questions. A standard format is
used to record the data so that the data collected form different employees can be

compared to identify the common and critical aspects of the job. The interviewer uses
standarised interview schedule and asks job related questions in the interview, Interview
is widely used method particularly for job wherein direct observation or actual
performance is not feasible. The following guidelines will help the analysist to make
interview effective.
a. Prepare for the interviewnotify all interviewers in advance of the purpose of
the study, send the material ( task list, question list etc) to them and fix proper time for
the interview.
b. Introduce yourself so that the worker knows who you are and why you are
there.
c. Show a sincere interest in the worker and job that is analysed
d. Do not try to tell the employee how to do the job.
e. Verify the job information obtained . Remove job inconsistencies and
contradiction in the information collected.
4. Questionnaire: In this method properly drafted questionnaire are sent out to
jobholders. After completion these are returned to supervisors. As the data is often
incoherent and disorganized, it is discussed with job holders. After due correction it is
submitted to job analyst.
The questionnaire method provides comprehensives information about a job. It
also enables the analyst to cover a large number of jobholders in the shortest possible
time. Data obtained through a questionnaire can be quantified and processed with the
help of computer. But it is time consuming and costly to prepare a standards
questionnaire. Direct rapport between the analyst and respondents is not possible. In the
absence of a personal touch cooperation and motivation of respondents tend to be low.
5. Critical Incidents: In this method the jobholders are asked to describe the job
incidents on the basis of their experience. The incidents so collected anr analysed and
classified according to the job areas they describe. A fairly clear picture of actual job
requirements can be obtained by distinguishing between effective and ineffective
behaviour of workers on the job. However this method is time consuming. The analyst
require a high degree of skill to analyse the content of description given by worker.
6. Log Records: In this method a diary or log book is given to each job holders.
The job holder daily record the duties performed marking the time at which the time at
which each task is started and finished. The record so maintained provides the
information about the job. This method is time consuming. Moreover, it provides
incomplete data because information concerning working conditions, equipment used and
supervisory relationship is not available from the logbook. Most employee are not
disciplined enough to maintained the regular log book. This method is rather useful to
jobs that are difficult to observe eg engineer, scientist, research man, senior manager etc.

Job Description
The data collected through job analysis provides the basis for preparing job descriptions
and job specification. Job description is the functional description of what the job entails.
It is factual and organised statement describing the job in terms of its title, location,

duties, responsibilities, working conditions hazards and relationship with other job. It
tells us what is to be done , how it is to be done and why. The job description gives us the
following uses
job grading and classification
placement of new employees on a job
orientation of new employees towards basic duties and responsibilities
promotion and transfer
work measurement and work improvement
health and fatigue studies.
Some organisation prepare more than one job description for each job. A brief version
issued to hire the employee anile a detailed version is used for training and development
and evaluating the job.

Contents of Job Description

A Job description normally consists of the following information
Job identification
Job Summary
Job Duties and responsibilities
Working conditions
Social environment
Machine, tools and equipment
Supervision
Relation to other job
-

Job Specification
Job specification or man specification or employee specification is a statement of
minimum acceptable human required for the proper performance of a job. It is the written
record of the physical, mental, social, psychological and behavioral characteristics which
a person should possess in order to perform the job effectively.
Physical characteristics includes height, weight, chest, vision, hearing, health, age,
voice, hand and foot coordination
Mental characteristics consist of general intelligence, memory, judgment, ability
to concentrate, foresight etc
Social and psychological characteristics comprises emotional stability, flexibility,
personal appearance, manner etc
Other persona characteristics include sex, education, family background, job
experience, hobbies etc.

Job specification tells what kind of person is required for a given job. It serves as
a guide in the recruitement and selection process. It is also helpful n training
advertisement appraisal of employee.
A Job specification normally consists of the following information
Position title
Department
Education and training
Experience
Age
Other attributes like good health, pleasing manner, fluency in
speaking and writing good knowledge of computer etc

Concepts of Job Design

In recent decades, humane resource managers have realized that what an
employee actually does on the job (design of a job). Has considerable influence on his
productivity and job satisfaction. Job analysis helps in developing appropriate design of a
job to improve efficiency and satisfaction. Job design is the process of deciding on the
contents of a job, in terms of its duties and responsibilities, on the method of
carrying out the job in terms of techniques, systems and procedures, and on the
relationships that should exist between the job holder and his superiors,
subordinates and colleagues.
The main objective of job design is to integrate the needs of individual and
requirements of the organisation. Today educated and creative employees demand well
designed jobs. Therefore increasing attempts are being made to redesign job so as to
improve the quality of working life.

Factors Affecting Job Design

Techniques Of Job Design
Some of the [popular techniques of job design which are used to improve the
motivating potential of jobs are given below.
1.
Job Rotation: It implies the sifting of an employee from one job to
another with out any change in jobs. For example, a back clerk may be sifted from cash
counter to token counter to teller counter and so on. The main advantage of job rotation is
that it relieves the employee form the boredom and monotony of doing a single task. The
employee gets some variety of work, workplace and the peers. Job rotation also helps to
broaden the knowledge and skills of an employee. Management gets employees who can
perform a variety of tasks to meet the future contingencies. This method also improves
the self wage and personal worth of the employee.
Job rotation however has a very limited potential. It doesnot changes the basic
nature of jobs. Moreover shifting of employees may course interruptions in the work
routine of the organisation.
2.
Job Enlargement: It is the process of increasing the scope of a job by
adding more tasks to it. The related tasks are combined. The widened and more complex

job is expected to satisfy the higher order needs of an employees. Due to variety of tasks,
an employee gets the opportunity to make greater use of mind and skills.
eg. In an company there are 3 groups of sales persons for three different sales
functions namely booking orders, delivering the product and providing after sale service.
Under job enlargement all the group are combined together so that every sales person
performs all three functions.
Job enlargement reduces the boredom by providing the employee a more
complete or whole job to do.
It helps to increase the interest in work and efficiency.
It is also a method of training and developing more versatile employees.
But it doesnot increase the depth of a job.
Enlarged job require longer training period as there are more tasks to be learned.
3. Job enrichment: It involves designing a job in such a way that it provides
worker greater autonomy for planning and controlling his own performance. It is based
on the assumption that in order to motivate employees, the job itself must provide
opportunity for achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and growth.
Through job enrichment a job is made more interesting and challenging, thereby
removing the narrow specialization.
Job enrichment should differentiated form job enlargement. Job enlargement
involves the horizontal loading of the job by adding a variety of operation which the job
holder performs. On the other hand, job enrichment consists of a vertical loading of the
job so that the jobholder himself controls the planning and execution of the job. In job
enrichment the jobholder is given more work in the same level of responsibility whereas
under the job enrichment the job holder is given greater autonomy and responsibility.
Some of the ways of doing the job enrichment are:

Increasing the scope of a job by adding variety of tasks

Assigning a natural work unit to an employee
Allowing the employee their own standard or target.
Making a employee directly responsible for his performance.
Minimizing the control to provide the freedom to the employee.
Introducing the new and difficult tasks to the employees.